Future Group launches 18-month course in design management with MISB Bocconi

NEW DELHI: The Future Group is launching a first-of-its kind design management course conceptualised by group CEO Kishore Biyani in association with MISB Bocconi for its staff and other professionals. The move reflects a growing trend among organisations, including startups, to boost employee engagement through learning and development.

The Future Group’s 18-month programme, called ‘International Executive Masters in Business Design Management’ will commence in September. It will include components like retail channels, design thinking, scenario planning and trend analysis and candidates will spend two weeks at MISB Bocconi’s parent business school SDA Bocconi's Milan campus.

Till date, the group has only sponsored its high-potential candidates for executive education courses at ISB and Harvard. This time, however, it wants to take its design thinking philosophy forward.

The programme will have about 15 Future Group employees and 10-15 external candidates, who will be selected through their statements of purpose, essays and interviews by the Future Group team and MISB Bocconi.

MISB Bocconi said the programme offers skills and competencies to be a design manager and is targeted at executives who want to develop design methodologies to implement breakthrough ideas. Faculty members will also fly down from Milan for the programme.

“There’s been a paradigm shift when we look at the way organisations will function. People will need skills to better understand consumer insights, data and financial modeling, and design is something that’s specific to our thought process,” said Kaustubh Sonalkar, chief HR officer at Future Group. The group was looking for an internationally recognised business school as people would not be excited if the programme was not globally accepted, he added.

Organisations across sectors are enhancing their focus on learning and development programmes. Learning and development is integral to employee engagement, said Pallavi Jha, chairperson and managing director, Dale Carnegie Training India.

Dale Carnegie Training has witnessed a 38% increase in leadership development programmes and a 21% increase in learning and development programmes linked to communication skills and human relations in companies between March 2014 and March 2015.

Online portal Makemytrip has introduced an app-based learning methodology called Trippers Academy to further its employees’ learning needs. “The traditional training structure is getting people in the classroom but if you have a diverse and scattered workforce, learning needs to be faster on the go,” said Yuvaraj Srivastava, chief human resources officer.

By clicking and downloading the app, employees get access to modules around leadership behaviour, and other functional skills for roles like technology, sales and customer engagement. The company is also creating structured leadership development programmes for junior, mid- and senior-level managers. Programmes for those at the level of directors and above will be led by group CEO Deep Kalra.

At Microsoft, ASPIRE offers leaders in two of its businesses, an opportunity to develop their current role effectiveness and future role readiness through live developmental projects, mentoring and shadowing opportunities, besides coaching with some of the top leadership coaches.

Learning at Sap is moving from an instruction-based, face-to-face model to a virtual, informal, role-based learning. The company has created openSAP in collaboration with the Hasso Plattner Institute, founded by professor Hasso Plattner, the co-founder of SAP. It works on the principle of Moocs.

All the courses are entirely online, and are open to SAP employees as well as professionals who would like to deepen their IT knowledge.